[sacw] SACW #1 | 8 August 02

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Thu, 8 Aug 2002 03:34:06 +0100


South Asia Citizens Wire Dispatch #1 | 8 August 2002

__________________________

#1. Statement re attack on Christian School (Pakistanis for Peace and 
Alternative Development)
#2. Fascism: Quit India, Communalism: Quit India - Sah-Nirman Rally 
(August 9, Ahmedabad)
#3. India: We or Nationhood (Re) Defined (Ram Puniyani)
#4. India's Wounded Democracy (Kaleem Kawaja)
#5. India: Ode to the BJP - Recognise its ethical and intellectual 
worth (Mushirul Hasan)
#6. India: National Convention of All India Secular Forum on 28 and 
29th September 2002 to be held in Mumbai
#7. India: Book Announcement - 'The Maverick Republic' by Jawid Laiq
#8. Announcement: South Asia Foundation Documentation and Information 
Centre (New Delhi)

__________________________

#1.

PPAD
Pakistanis for Peace and Alternative Development

Dear Sir/Madam

PPAD is a Peace and Alternative Development group formed in 1998 by 
academics, peace activists, intellectuals and professionals of 
Pakistani origin to work for peace, tolerance and alternative 
development in Pakistan. We are extremely concerned at the targeting 
of religious minorities by extremists in Pakistan. The latest 
shocking incident of violence and murder of seven innocent people in 
a School in Murree is the most deplorable act which we very strongly 
condemn. We send our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to all 
those who have lost their loved ones. We also ask the Government and 
the authorities concerned that they should do their utmost to arrest 
those responsible for these heinous crimes and bring them to justice.

As expatriate Pakistanis we feel that the government must do all it 
can to curb violence in the society and to educate the masses to 
respect those of minority faiths. In civilised societies majority 
respects and protects the beliefs and practices of the minorities. 
Education of the public both through mass media and through schools 
about the rights of minorities and respect for them should be the 
highest priority of the government.

We also ask all concerned citizens of Pakistan to support the 
minorities and protect their rights in whatever way they can. We are 
also worried that violence and intolerance is worsening the multitude 
of complex problems that the country is facing today. Unless the 
government can curb it forcefully - and it will need all the public 
pressure and support for this - the development of Pakistan will 
become increasingly difficult and peaceful survival of the people and 
the country very arduous.

Protection of minorities and peace is vital for the socio-economic 
development of the people and for poverty alleviation and must be 
supported at all cost. For without peace there is little hope for the 
future.

Dr Ahmed Shibli
<mailto:ias23@h...>ias23@h...
2 Warwick Gardens, Ashtead
Surrey, UK.
6th August 2002

Co-ordinator: Dr Ahmed Shibli, UK

Core Members: Dr Ghazala Anwar, Newzealand. Group Captain (Rtd.) 
Cecil Chaudhry, Pakistan. Nazeer A Chaudhry, USA. Prof. Hassan 
Gardezi, Canada. Prof. Bilal Hashmi, USA Owais Hasin, Pakistan. Ayyub 
Malik, UK. Dr Babar Mumtaz, UK. Prof A H Nayyar, Pakistan. Dr Saghir 
Shaikh, USA

_____

#2.

SAH-NIRMAN RALLY ON AUGUST 9 IN AHMEDABAD
FASCISM: QUIT INDIA, COMMUNALISM: QUIT INDIA

If democracy works by lobbying then the story of riot victims - 
particularly the farce of compensation - needs to be brought home to 
the nation. Literally to every house of India.
In this context several meetings were held with a cross-section of 
affected persons, NGOs and voluntary agencies and an ad-hoc 
Coordination Council was set up, basically to seek wider and wiser 
counsel. I believe we had the benefit of your advice, too.
As a result SPRAT has the mandate to organize a victims' rally on 9th 
August, 2002. The in-principle Police permission has also been 
obtained. Thanks to the valuable support and generous cooperation of 
concerned citizens and NGOs, the following contours have emerged for 
the rally:
1. The rally will be quiet, orderly and disciplined. The message will 
be conveyed through imaginatively designed placards, posters, banners 
and display of damaged assets with heart-touching messages
2. It is estimated that about 3000 persons, several of them holding 
placards will participate
3. Also 10-20 camel carts and 20-30 hand carts will carry in a moving 
manner damaged goods, young children and infirm adults
4. Excessive emphasis will not be laid on the number of victims 
participating but rather on the message they convey. The focus will 
be on media - specially TV - for nation-wide coverage. Besides, the 
footage generated from the rally will lead to creation of some 
photo-exhibitions and documentary films
5. It will traverse through certain affected areas of Bapunagar, in 
the old city, before terminating outside the Stadium for a public 
meeting.
6. The rally will focus the following issues
a. The situation of compensation
b. Through visible presence of Hindus it will show the fundamentalists isolated
7. Groups of orphans, widows, injured and handicapped people and 
those whose relatives are killed.. and so on will march in groups, 
carrying appropriate banners
8. Well-known lights of Hindu fraternity are expected to lead the 
rally. Besides, perhaps the various NGOs may include their own groups 
with their own unique banners of solidarity exposing the failure of 
fundamentalists to divide the civic community
9. Uniform placards in honour of the NGOs and other voluntary 
agencies who served the victims will also be carried by children
Kindly consider this missive as a formal invitation. Plus, kindly:
1. Let us mention you / your organization as a Supporter / Co-sponsor 
of the Rally. Unless you convey otherwise we take it that we have 
your consent for this.
2. Call the concerned Coordinator immediately with your valued ideas 
and suggestions to further enhance the rally's effectiveness
3. Enroll participation of a large contingent of various types of 
victims under your influence and also your activists / volunteers
4. Send for inclusion in the rally your banners and placards, if any
5. Participate in the rally yourself
Please convey your acceptance by signing and refaxing / mailing this / a copy.
We also intend to felicitate the various relief camp organizers to be 
selected by a representative committee of all the relief 
organizations, in a public function. For this we will return to you 
shortly after the rally.
Looking forward to hearing from you and with kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
M H Jowher, President
SPRAT [Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking]
SF-8, Rajnagar Complex, Narayan Nagar Road
Paldi, AHMEDABAD 380 007
Tel: +79-663 46 55 /66 /77 [1000-1800 Hrs]
Tel: +79-661 40 95 / 20 45 [2000-2100 Hrs]
Fax: +79-661 20 49
Web: <http://www.mysprat.org>www.mysprat.org
e-mail: <mailto:mhj@m...>mhj@m...
(Rally supported by: SPRAT, Citizen's Initiative, Aman Samudaya, 
SWARAJ, Janpath, Pravah, DYFI, INSAF, various camp organisers and 
NGOs.)
RALLY DETAILS
Date: 9th August, 2002 [Friday]
Time: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Police Stations: Bapunagar, Rakhial etc
Areas to be covered by the Procession: Gayatrinagar Nr Narol Highway 
through Soni Ki Chawl, Qalandar Masjid, Hardasnagar Chowk, Urban 
Nagar, Akbar Nagar near Stadium
Plan of Rally: Starting from near the Stadium with people, camel 
carts and hand carts etc. it will traverse through the above route 
and terminate back at Akbar Nagar for a public meeting to be 
addressed by eminent citizens. The crowd is expected to range between 
1000-4000
Method of Demonstration: Quiet and disciplined rally. Display of 
banners, posters etc promoting national integration, and damaged 
assets showing state of compensation.
Objectives of the Rally: To promote communal harmony and national 
integration, to highlight inadequacy of compensation etc.

_____

#3.

We or Nationhood (Re) Defined

Ram Puniyani

There have been ample opinions about our new President. While some hail
him as the great scientist who has given strength to the Indian Nation,
others have criticized him for his narrow approach about the strength of a
Nation. Can military strength be equated to the might of the Nation? They
argue. There is another deep-rooted aspect about the understanding of our
President, which needs some introspection. It is not that he is the only
one to hold such an opinion about 'We' as a nation. But since he now
occupies the highest office of the land we need to examine it. Prior to
his election during one of his statements he pointed out that 'We', the
Indian Nation have not focused on our strength, military technology so the
foreigners kept invading us (Muslims, British).

This, according him is the major cause of our plight today. As we were a
weak-Nation militarily so what we need is to overcome this. In todays
parlance it means we should focus more on bombs and missiles, the
technologies and weapons that have made him the darling of ruling
establishment and a section of vocal class. The two pertinent points
emerging from honorable Presidents understating are, one, whether a Nation
can be strong when it has more firepower or is it strong if its people are
well fed, well taken care of? In a way it is the revival of Guns or Butter
debate. The second point, which emerges, is the historical continuity of
our identity. What does this mean in todays context? Have 'we' been a
Nation from last three or five thousand or ten thousand years? When did
'we' begin as Indian Nation? How is it important to understand this
question, what relevance it has got for our polity today?

The major confusion, which prevails about 'we', pertains to the one of
continuity and change of a community. Also in popular notions the
differences between Kingdoms, colonial set up and the Nation state is not
very clear. To cap it there is a tendency to identify one's nationhood
with the religion of kings. What Mr. Kalam is stating tantamount
to confusing at all the levels. Kingdoms had a different logic and to
think that the era of Hindu Kings was our era and the coming in of Muslim
Kings was slavery holds no water. The Muslim kings who came here settled
here and raised an administration from this soil only. One recalls the two
Navaratnas in the court of Akbar being Hindus, twenty four percent of the
officials in Shahjahans court and 34% in Aurangzebs court being Hindus.
The social structure was not much disturbed and the drainage of wealth as
in the case of British rule did not take place. One does not wish to
ignore the Muslim Kings who came here for plunder in different phases of
History. But has plundering others kingdoms been a crime during the era of
Kingdoms? Kings irrespective of their religions have plundered other kings
areas.

Colonial period was a different cup of tea. Here the colonial powers
came to plunder the raw materials and to establish a market for their
industrial goods. The administration was geared towards this aim. It is in
the womb of colonialism that the modern India comes into being through the
struggle of people to get more facilities for local industries, through
the caste and gender struggles for equality and through the aim of driving
away the British rule. Now this process was described by many as 'India is
a Nation in the making', and since Mahatma Gandhi was leading this
greatest mass movement of twentieth century he was given the status of
Father of the Nation.

This mainstream process was opposed by the feudal elements and the
ideologues of pre-modern values. Those opposed to the emerging modern
values of caste and gender equality put forward alternate view of
Nationhood. The ideologues of Muslim Communal politics pointed out that
Muslims are a separate Nation since the time of Mohammaed bin Kasim. This
seed later developed into the ideological base of Muslim League. Chaudhary
Rahmat Ali gave it first verbal expression when along with a group of
Cambridge students he coined the word, Pakistan (P for Punjab, A for
Afghans, K for Kashmir, S for Sind and sthan, the Persian suffix meaning
country) Jinnah identified again with Islam based nation when in 1941 he
said that Pakistan is the only way to save Islam in India.

The alternative view, the view, which operated on the same wavelength, but
came to different conclusion, was that this is a Hindu Nation from last
five thousand years. The ideologues of this view initially said that since
the time of arrival of Aryans from the artic zone, this is a Hindu Nation.
Interestingly a section of this stream welcomed the colonization of India
by the British. As per them the Aryans who came from the Arctic zone
divided into two streams one went to Europe, the second coming to India.
So coming of the British here is like the reunion of the parted cousins.
Keshub Chandra Sen put this forward very strongly. It accepted the logic
propounded by British that British have come here to liberate us from the
atrocities of Muslim kings. Later this stream slightly modified the
understanding by saying that Aryans are the original natives of this land,
they came from nowhere. This was done to suit the ideology of 'First
Comer', in the context of demonizing the Muslim. If Aryans also came from
outside and Muslims came from outside so a type of parity gets established
between Aryans and Muslims, both coming from outside. So this turn around.

This tendency got consolidated into Hindu Mahasabha and RSS. M.S. Golwalkar,
the second sarsanghchalak of RSS, states," As a child of this soil, our
well-evolved society has been living here for thousands of years. This
society has been known especially, in modern times, as Hindu society. This
is a historical fact. For it is the forefathers of Hindu people who have
set up standards and traditions...prescribed duties and rights...(and)
shed their blood in defense of the sanctity and integrity of the
Motherland. That all this, has been done by Hindu people is a fact in
which our history of thousands of years bears eloquent testimony. It means
that only Hindus have been living here as child of soil". (Bunch of
Thoughts, 1966, 123-24, from Khaki Shorts, Basu et al 1993.)

Contrary to these concepts, which were based on Religion as nationalism,
the major concept about 'we' was put forward by the National movement. In
this concept of 'we' there is continuity and change both. It does begin
from the ancient traditions but only in the context of ongoing change.
It does not take religion as the marker of Nationhood. There is a dynamic
concept of Nation in the process of formation due to the changes in material
conditions and ideas. This concept of 'we' takes all the castes and
religions on parity as the citizens and this 'we' also treats women and
men on equal footing as citizens. And this is what got enshrined in the
constitution, "We the people of India, having resolved to constitute India
into a Soverign Socialist Democratic Republic and to secure all its
citizens: Justice...Liberty...Equality...and Fraternity". (From Preamble
to our constitution). There is parity in the 'we' of Muslim League and
RSS, where Nation is constituted by the people belonging to one religion.
The other concept of 'we', the one enshrined in our constitution is the
polar opposite of what Muslim League and RSS take as their base.
Unfortunately, lately the concept of we given in our constitution is
deliberately being undermined in the propaganda of the communal forces.

And many of us show this confusion, our Honorable President included.
Its time that Mr. Kalam as the top functionary and custodian of our
constitution strives to adopt the meaning of 'we' as per the values of our
freedom struggle and the one's enshrined in our constitution. The 'we' of
Golawalkar and Jinnah can and should be dumped in the museum of deviations
of freedom movement and the 'we' of Gandhi, Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam
be our credo.

(The writer works for EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai)

_____

#4.

INDIA'S WOUNDED DEMOCRACY
By: Kaleem Kawaja

India is without doubt the most populous democracy on earth. For as 
long as leaders from India's non-violent freedom movement held the 
reins of power, they tried to implement the nation's cherished 
secular & democratic constitution, sometimes against heavy odds. 
Today, over fifty years after India became a sovereign independent 
nation state, while a majority of Hindus are still fair-minded, 
extremist Hindus who are a minority in their own community, are 
working overtime to undo the secular ethos and composite culture of 
India.

One of the first blows to the Indian democracy occurred in the early 
1980s. In 1984, in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira 
Gandhi by two of her Sikh security guards, 4,000 defenseless minority 
Sikhs were massacred in North India by gangs of extremist Hindus, 
with the connivance of the ruling Congress party politicians and the 
police. With an eye on the upcoming election in which the Congress 
party's prospects did not look good, the ruling Congress party headed 
by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi refused to provide any 
government/police protection to the Sikhs. They believed that this 
strategy of limited violence against a religious minority, could win 
them a lot of Hindu votes. The Congress party did win a majority in 
that election.

Taking a cue from this ploy, the Hindu fundamentalist Bharti Janata 
Party (BJP), which had never won more than a handful of seats in the 
parliament until then, soon unleashed a no-holds-barred two year long 
highly emotive and violent extremist Hindu political campaign, 
demanding that the ancient Babri mosque be demolished and be replaced 
with a Rama temple, declaring it an issue of national importance. 
Rather than contain that very explosive campaign, the then ruling 
Congress party too chose to cash in on the religious sentiments of 
majority Hindus, refusing to use the governmental machinery to stop 
BJPs campaign to spread hatred against the minority Muslims.

In 1992 with the ruling Congress party facing uncertain electoral 
prospects in the upcoming election, Prime Minister Narsimha Rao, 
using the same political strategy of limited Hindu violence against 
the minorities, refused to prevent the demolition of Babri mosque, 
because he saw many Hindu votes in that appeasement of extremist 
Hindus. In January 1993, in yet another replay of the 1984 Sikh 
massacre strategy, the ruling Congress party deliberately refused to 
do anything to stop the killing of 2,000 defenseless Muslims in 
Bombay by extremist Hindu gangs, who acted in open connivance with 
the Indian police.

In the period 1999-2001, it was the turn of India's small Christian 
minority, to be bashed up by the extremist Hindu groups in the states 
of Gujarat and Orissa. Again the BJP government declined to provide 
basic police protection to the belagured Christians.

Now in 2002, as India's ruling BJP party is facing many problems in 
most areas, and has lost many state & local elections, it is using 
the same electoral strategy of large scale killing of minority 
Muslims by extremist Hindu groups in Gujarat, to gain the votes of 
the Hindus in the upcoming parliamentary election. They have seen 
this political strategy played out several times. In fact they 
themselves gained power in New Delhi by organizing the demolition of 
the Babri mosque and the anti-Muslim violence in Bombay in 1992/93.

With their repeated appeasement of extremist Hindus who continue to 
brutalize the religious minorities with impunity, as an electoral 
strategy, India's major political parties have inflicted grievous 
wounds on the nations democratic polity. Today while India continues 
to be a democracy, it has become an oppressive democracy, a democracy 
for its majority Hindu population alone, a democracy where extremist 
Hindus are appeased, and minority Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have 
very little protection under the laws of the land. In fact today the 
power structure and ruling party have little hesitation in saying 
publicly that the religious minorities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs) 
in India live at the goodwill (mercy) of majority Hindus.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The writer is a director of the Association of Indian Muslims of 
America, Washington DC.

_____

#5.

Indian Express
Wednesday, August 07, 2002

Ode to the BJP
Recognise its ethical and intellectual worth
Mushirul Hasan

The maker of phrases survives the maker of things in history. There 
is nothing so swiftly forgotten, says Gore Vidal, as public memory of 
a good action. That is why great men insist on putting up monuments 
to themselves with their deeds carefully recorded, as those they 
served will not honour them in life or in death. Heroes must see to 
their own fame.

Fortunately, most honourable ministers in the NDA government 
undertake, for altruistic reasons, the difficult and thankless task 
of guiding the nation. This requires, as the careers of George 
Fernandes, Yashwant Sinha, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav illustrate, 
a very high degree of public spirit and selflessness. What, if they 
have shed their socialist cloak and act in unison with the RSS? What, 
if they remain studiously silent over the anti-Muslim pogrom in 
Gujarat?

We must, nonetheless, recognise their ethical and intellectual worth. 
Hence, it will be in the fitness of things for posterity to put up a 
memorial or two in their name. Though historians can be cruel in 
their assessment, I plead with them not to consign them into the 
dustbin of history. BJP's ministers are God's gift to the nation. 
They fulfil the qualifications of a good leader - courage, justice, 
integrity, practical wisdom, dignity, and generosity. Inheriting the 
secular legacy bequeathed by Hedgewar, Savarkar and Golwalkar, they 
rise above petty, party considerations to fortify pluralist values. 
Nurtured in the RSS shakhas, they base their thinking and their 
actions on truth and faithfulness. They have truly established 'Ram 
Rajya'. But before expecting honey to flow into our homes, we must 
endeavour to bring back the BJP to power for yet another term. In 
Gujarat, too, in order to harness Narendra Modi's creative genius. 
What, if a couple of thousand Muslims are brutally massacred and 
thousands rendered homeless? After all, the end justifies the means.

Notwithstanding the litany of complaints against them, some of the 
BJP stalwarts will be lionised, in retrospect, for demolishing the 
Babri Masjid; others for their alleged involvement in the Tehelka 
racket.

Some will go down in history for heralding the saffron era in the 
neglected sphere of education and fortifying our god-sent spiritual 
and moral values; others for selling the family silver with a 
vengeance. And, then, there are those who pander to the wishes of 
their patron by repeatedly defending the proto-fascist elements in 
Gujarat. They are young; hence the reward comes during their lifetime.

Arun Shourie, the boy from St. Stephen's College in Delhi, is the 
prime minister's prized trophy. His credentials are impeccable. 
Trained as an economist in the US, he took to journalism and, as the 
editor of a national daily, exposed corruption in public life.

This earned him the prestigious Magsaysay Award. He has also 
published scores of books that include polemical critiques of B.R. 
Ambedkar and the Christian missionaries. A moral crusader during his 
journalistic career, for which he received worldwide acclaim, he 
commands respect for his personal integrity as a cabinet minister.

It is hard to endorse Arun Shourie's reading of Indian history, his 
interpretation of Islam, his critique of Marxism, and his definition 
of secularism.

Yet, whatever his critics might say, he has upheld public morality as 
a virtue and quite often fought for seemingly lost causes. The misuse 
of religion, he wrote in 1993, must be scotched. 'The way to scotch 
it,' he added, 'is to establish a polity, to practice a politics, 
which is truly secular'. He also opposed the mixing of religion in 
politics.'The process leading to the induction of sadhus and sants,' 
he wrote after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, 'must be swiftly 
reversed lest it lead(s) to the Khomeni-isation of our politics, and 
to the same results' (Indian Controversies).

Though wary of Muslims, contemptuous of their leaders, and strongly 
critical of certain Islamic tenets, Arun Shourie has not been moved 
by the Hindutva claptrap. He firmly believes, so his writings 
suggest, in Hindu-Muslim unity. He did not write from a liberal-left 
perspective, but from a proto Hindu nationalist standpoint. He wrote 
a book entitled A Secular Agenda: For saving our country and insisted 
that, 'this intermingling, this deliberate accommodation and mutual 
assimilation of each other's beliefs and practices has indeed been 
the very leitmotif of our life'.

If this is an accurate summation of Arun Shourie's worldview, one 
wonders why he has chosen to keep mum over the carnage in Gujarat? By 
all means, condemn the perpetrators of the crime in Godhra, but for 
heaven's sake say something about the gods that failed to protect 
innocent Muslim lives. You have written extensively against the 
'pseudo-secularists' and Murli Manohar Joshi's 'intellectual 
terrorists', but you have not uttered a word against the perpetrators 
of crimes against humanity in the cities and hamlets of Gujarat.

Why? Why? Your silence will be construed as acquiescence in the 
state-sponsored acts of terrorism. One other thing. In the past, you 
ceaselessly exposed corruption in political circles; hence, the 
unceremonious exit of A.R. Antulay. Have you spoken about the rampant 
corruption in the rank and file of the BJP? Do you have any personal 
views on the Tehelka episode, and the subsequent victimisation of the 
reporters responsible for the expose? Will you resign over the recent 
scandal over the distribution of petrol stations to BJP and RSS 
supporters?

I think you should extricate yourself from the mess. You had written 
not long ago that one way to have truckdrivers obey the speed limit 
is to build in a mechanism which cuts off the brakes the moment the 
vehicle exceeds the speed limit. Dear Mr Shourie, you had once 
written, 'not an enforced amnesia but an unsparing memory - that is 
what will build a nation'. I wonder if you still subscribe to this 
view. You had also opined: 'Our conduct must be principled, whatever 
the conduct of others'. 'For,' as Jesus said, 'if you love those who 
love you, what reward have you?'

_____

#6.

Rashtriaya Secular Manch
(All India Secular Forum)
Mumbai Office-C/o CSSS, 9-B, Himalaya Apts., 6th Rd. Santacruz (E), 
Mumbai:- 400 055
Ph - 6630085, 6149668, Fax: 022-6173624, e-mail - csss@v...
________________________________________________________________________________

Patron General Secretary
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer Prof. Ram Punyani
(Bombay) (Bombay)

Convener
Lajja Shankar Hardenia Office: 45 Bangalows, 
Journalist colony,
(Bhopal) Bhopal (M.P.)

August 7, 2002

Dear Friend,

This is to invite you to the National Convention of All India Secular 
Forum on 28 and 29th September 2002 to be held in Mumbai.

Just to recall we already had two zonal meetings to form an All India 
body to strive for secular India. The North zone meeting was held in 
Pachmadhi (MP) in which delegates from Northern states had attended. 
This was held on May 11& 12, 2001. In this meeting it was decided to 
hold the South zone convention as a prelude to the National 
convention. The provisional name suggested in this meeting was 
Rashtriya Secular Manch. At this meeting a sub committee was formed 
to chalk out a draft manifesto. Also different regional 
responsibilities were undertaken by activists. The South zonal 
meeting was held in Hydrabad on 29th-30 September. in which activists 
from Southern states participated. The provisional name was changed 
over to All India Secular Forum, draft manifesto was ratified to be 
presented at the National Convention for final adoption. You also 
must have received three issues of the newsletter of the forum.

We are aware of the mammoth tasks ahead of us. Especially after 
Godhra tragedy and Gujarat carnage we are facing a do or die 
situation. If we are unable to defend democracy now, the Nation will 
be facing a serious crisis. The communal politics has vitiated the 
atmosphere further threatening the very concept of Indian 
Constitution. In these grim times let us pick up the thread from our 
earlier meetings and try to form an All India coalition of the 
activist groups and individuals to implement the campaigns and other 
activities to defend our Democracy.

We look Forward to your positive response. On first day of the meet, 
we will have experience sharing from different regions and on the 
second day we will chalk out an action program. Do inform other 
interested and concerned activists. Do confirm your participation at 
the earliest. We will be offering local hospitality.

Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer L.S. Hardenia Prof. 
Ram Punyani
(Patron) (Convener) 
(General Secretary)

(Venue-Asha Kiran, St. Pius College, Goregaon (E), Mumbai 
Registration Fee-Rs. 100.)

______

#7.

The Maverick Republic
by Jawid Laiq
Published by Roli Books

It is a work covering social and political issues within the country 
over the past three decades from a journalist's viewpoint. Its main 
thrust is that "despite the demonstrable political wisdom of the 
humble voter and the valiant attempts of the common citizen to seek a 
semblance of material progress and social equity, those with money, 
power and influence have relentlessly driven the country into a 
wildly individulistic quagmire of greed, self-indulgence and cruelty. 
A country where there are no standards, rules or principles to carry 
out even the simplest social transaction, where everything is 
permissible, where anything goes. The largest democracy has 
become The Maverick Republic".

Roli Books is at M-75, GK-2 Market, New Delhi-110048. Phone number: 
9111-646-2782. Fax: 9111-646-7185. E-mail: 
<mailto:roli@v...>roli@v...

_____

#8.

South Asia Foundation Documentation and Information Centre
(SAFDIC)

Founded by UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singh, South Asia 
Foundation is a secular, no-profit and non-political youth movement 
for promoting regional cooperation at all levels of society in the 
seven SAARC countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, 
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAF's activities are in conformity with the 
spirit, purpose and principles of the SAARC charter. SAF's seven 
parallel and autonomous Chapters in each country have eminent public 
figures in their respective Advisory Boards.

South Asia Foundation Information and Documentation Centre (SAFDIC) 
is a major activity of SAF. SAFDIC is designed to be the most 
up-to-date Documentation and Information Centre in the whole of South 
Asian region. It is housed at the SAF-India Chapter premise located 
at A-33, Vasant Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110 057. The SAFDIC 
houses almost all the important books and journals related to South 
Asian countries published by both national and foreign publishers. 
Documents for the SAFDIC are selected and collected by the most 
knowledgeable persons about South Asia region.

SAFDIC has the following collections :

Books
<http://www.southasiafoundation.org/safdic/journals/journalmain.asp>Journals
Database on South Asia
Bilateral Agreements
Documents
Thematic Bibliography

In order to make the SAFDIC accessible to anyone interested on South 
Asian issues and affairs, most of the documents that are available 
with the Centre are being digitized in an steady way.

To start with we are inviting select group of people having definite 
interest on the issues and affairs related to South Asia to access 
our data base on Journals. So far we have digitized over 20 Journals 
on South Asia details of which are now available with the SAFDIC. 
Please visit 
<http://www.southasiafoundation.org/safdic/journals/journalmain.asp>www.southasiafoundation.org/safdic/journals/journalmain.asp

We will soon open above mentioned other digitized sections of SAFDIC 
and also a comprehensive portal on the region. We have tried to make 
the access to this first digital Information and Documentation on 
South Asia as friendly as possible. We welcome your valuable 
suggestions to make it more interactive and useful.

If you have queries, please write to <mailto:safdic@s...>safdic@s...

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